A Merck sign stands in front of the company's Summit campus, which until Tuesday was planned to be the drug giant's next world headquarters.Kena Betancur/Getty Images

Merck’s questionable timing

Merck’s decision to locate its headquarters in Kenilworth, not Summit, will have purely local effects on taxes and traffic. Far more important is that the company laid off 7,500 workers and plans to lay off 8,500 more, many in the United States.

It read: “Even with the economy still recovering, many of our companies continue to have difficulty finding sufficient American workers to fill certain lesser-skilled positions. Thus, in addition to addressing the need for more highly skilled immigrants, we strongly support efforts to bolster the availability of a workforce at all skills levels, through a separate visa program as well as by creating a path to legal status for those already here.”

Signed by more than 100 executives, hers is one of two names at the top, out of alphabetical order, indicating her editorial responsibility.

How about jobs and training for those who are already U.S. citizens?

Joseph Shipman, Rocky Hill

Blame the voters

Instead of blaming the federal government shutdown on Republicans (“What’s next?” editorial, Oct. 2), why doesn’t The Star-Ledger put the blame where it belongs — on voters?

Richard Lugar was a respected Republican senator from Indiana. Joe Lieberman was a respected Democratic senator from Connecticut. Both were defeated in primary elections.

Why were Sens. Lugar and Lieberman rejected by their own parties’ voters? Both were viewed as too friendly with the other side.

As long as U.S. voters insist their elected officials not be too friendly with the opposition, gridlock and shutdowns will continue. Stop blaming everything on Republicans.

Bob Graul, Scotch Plains

Pain or disability?

New Jersey’s Legislature is considering a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide for those with a diagnosis of six months or less to live. Compassion & Choices, formerly the Hemlock Society, is the bill’s main backer.

Delores Lewis, a supporter, wrote an op-ed (“Why I support the Death with Dignity Act,” Sept. 29) describing the pain her sons endured in their last stages of life. No one would challenge the right of a mother to her opinion on this issue.

However, according to Compassion & Choices’ New York state director, David Leven, this legislation is “not about pain.” Medical treatments, including quality hospice care and palliative sedation, are accepted and available. The American Medical Association and the Medical Society of New Jersey agree, and oppose this bill. But, Leven said, people do not want to relinquish “control.” In other words, they fear disability.

Compassion & Choices’ agenda advances the attitude that some people’s lives are less worthy of society’s concern than others. Otherwise, why enable suicide, but only for people who fear a loss of “control” as death approaches? The law’s name implies that those who die before they become disabled have “dignity,” and others do not.

This bill leaves elderly and disabled people even more vulnerable than they are now.

Anne Holloway Studholme, Prince­ton

Building affordable homes

New Jersey needs to kick-start its affordable housing efforts. As explained in The Star-Ledger (“A court with spine,” editorial, Sept. 29), the issue re-emerged in New Jersey after the state Supreme Court struck down 5-year-old regulations and ordered the Council on Affordable Housing to set new quotas for municipalities.

The high cost of housing leaves thousands without a decent place to live. A 2012 study by the United Way of Northern New Jersey found more than a third of New Jersey households — 1.15 million — were unable to afford the basics of housing, food, transportation, health care and child care.

That hurts New Jersey as a whole. Local governments, state agencies, nonprofits and businesses must find ways to provide reasonably priced housing for families with low and moderate incomes.

NewBridge Services has created more than 200 units of affordable housing by working with municipalities, government agencies, private entities and nonprofits, and has 50-plus more in development. For more information, visit New­Bridge at newbridge.org or call (888) 746-9333.

Maternity pens are supported by veterinarians and farmers because they allow individual feeding and care, while preventing the fighting that can occur if sows are housed in groups. Both the American Association of Swine Veterinarians and the American Veterinary Medical Association find maternity pens provide for animal welfare.

Activists at the Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary and other groups may disagree, but they’re not veterinary groups and have little credibility when it comes to animal behavior science. Polls show the public trusts farmers and vets more than animal rights activists.

New Jersey is not a major pork-producing state, and it doesn’t seem there is a single farmer in the state who uses maternity pens. Can’t politicians and activists stop wasting taxpayer time and donor money?